


An unhoped-for duo

by suisse_girl_101



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: but fails, but makes a new friends, rich kid tries to run away
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-11
Updated: 2019-05-11
Packaged: 2020-03-01 04:02:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,767
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18792586
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/suisse_girl_101/pseuds/suisse_girl_101
Summary: She was stupid for thinking she would ever get far with her plan (if she ever had one) of running away. However, she didn't think it would be because her hoverbike decided to run out of gas in the middle of the desert. Thankfully though, she didn't seem at a total loss, since a house is nearby. Sneaking inside the farm maybe wasn't the best idea, especially not as she got caught by a boy immediately, but it seemed to her that fate was fed up with her streak of bad luck and decided that the night would end much better than first assumed.





	An unhoped-for duo

She was stupid. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Elizabeth didn’t know who she could blame this time for everything that was happening around her. It didn’t really matter, since she was mad at everyone, nonetheless. Mad at her damn motorbike for deciding that now would be a nice time to run out of fuel, mad at B.O.B for not refilling it, mad at herself for not thinking about it before she left the house and mad at her parents for being the assholes they so clearly are.  
Nevertheless, she wouldn’t give up so easily, tried over and over again to get the bike to start again, as if the fuel gauge was lying to her. Just as expected, the only thing she achieved with it, was to make the engine sputter a few times until everything around her fell silent again. There was nothing left to do but walk.  


With the slower tempo the thoughts started to reach her. The thoughts she tried to escape with the rush of adrenalin Elisabeth got from driving too fast to be allowed on any kind of street. Wouldn’t be the first time she got in trouble for that, but since there were no cars in sight on the desert road, she didn’t worry about it. Thoughts like: Where should she go now? Did she even ever have a plan? Why did she even do this? And she suddenly felt stupider than ever before. The anger was gone and the only thing that stayed was a sad and hollow feeling. There was nothing that could distract her, the only thing she could do, was looking at the landscape around her as wave after wave of self-pity crushed into her.  
Around her, the orange sheen of the setting sun covered everything. It looked beautiful, but the promise of the beginning night made her worry. This wasn’t her first night she spent not being home, but it certainly was the first time where she didn’t have a place in mind to stay. Maybe, if she turned around now, she could be back in town before it was too late. Maybe even return to her house. But her stubbornness didn’t allow such a thing, not that anyone at home would care where she went. Well, maybe B.O.B, but he didn’t count. He was built to care.  


As if someone up there finally had enough with her worrying thoughts, Elizabeth spotted a house on the edge of the horizon. Her requirements were low at this point and she was grateful for the last spark of luck in her life to be sacrificed for the appearance of the house and she continued walking, this time, with a destination, or at least something close to a destination, as she didn’t really know what to do when she reached it. Which turned out to take longer than she first expected. She didn’t know if it was the road, which stretched itself to the maximum, or her tired footsteps, which grew smaller and smaller.  


Finally, she stood in front of the house. Or rather houses, as it turned out that her destination was a farm with several other buildings. Elizabeth didn’t know if she should knock on the door of what seemed to be the main house. No, that was a stupid idea. What should she even say? That she’s a lost cause who ran away from her rich parents, who would buy anything for her if she even mentioned it once in a conversation, but still actually wouldn’t pay attention until the end of sai conversation? That would sound even stupider than this whole scenario already is. Instead she decided to go for one of the side buildings, the one which didn’t smell like cattle. Or not as much.  


Opening the door was louder than expected and she stopped in the middle of it, afraid someone from the house would hear her, even though most windows were dark. So, someone could imagine her shock, when a voice came from inside the barn. “Who are you?”  


It was a weak voice, just as surprised as Elizabeth felt. A short glance through the barn and she was able to spot the owner of the voice, hiding, his hair just as wild as the hay around him. Just a kid. “And who are you?”, she asked.  


“I asked first. And don’t come any closer.” The boy shot something in her direction, thankfully it didn’t hit her, but it made her flinch. The boy, slowly coming out of his hide-out aimed at her with a slingshot.  


“Hey, what was that for?”  


“Who are you?”, the boy insisted.  


“Will you let me in if I say my name? Or will you call the cops on me?”  


The boy tensed up visibly for a moment and hesitated. “Depends.”, he finally said, “if you’re a thief or not.”  


That made her chuckle, she’d stolen before, plenty of times, but this time when all she wanted is some help, she got accused of being a thief. “No, I ain’t a thief or something like that, I just want some fuel for my motorbike and afterwards I’ll leave, promise.”  


She lifted her arms up as if to surrender to the boy, who slowly lowered his slingshot.

“How do I know you ain’t lying?”  


“My bike’s outside, I could bring it in, if you promise not to shoot at me anymore.” She turned around to get it before he even answered, however she could make out a quiet, “alright”, from inside the barn.  


With evidence to prove her story, and no intention to rob his home, the boy seemed to open up.  
“You still didn’t tell me your name.”, he said, once she said down in the hay next to him.  


“Elizabeth Caledonia Ashe.”, she said, not thinking too much about whether it was smart or not to reveal her name just like that, “And what’s yours?”  


“Jesse McCree” The boy, who finally had a name fitting to the grin on his face he had, while he stretched his hand out to shake hers. Reluctantly, she accepted. Better to stay on the good side of the boy. Just because he won’t tattle for now, doesn’t mean he’ll do the same later on. “Is that your bike?”  


“No, I stole it.”, she deadpanned, before realising this wasn’t the smartest answer. The expression on Jesse’s face insured her even more. “I’m joking, alright? Its mine, but at the moment it’s as good as useless, because I ran out of fuel.”  


“Well, shit. Do you wanna call your parents or something?”  


“What? Are you crazy?”, she said ruder than she wished. God, could she just do one single thing right this day? “I’m sorry, it’s just… I don’t even know what I want. Just, not my parents.”  


“That’s fine. I get it.”  


“No, you don’t.”, again, she was rude to the only person who could help her. If he was even willing to help her at all.  


Silence filled the room, some quite ‘moos could be heard, traveling passed the walls from the stable, filled with cattle, and entering the barn. Both were uncomfortable. Elizabeth, being more lost in her own thoughts than in the world, and Jesse not having a clue what to do with this weird woman who just entered his home. He got the feeling that he should probably go call someone, but something kept him from doing it. Maybe because, even though Elizabeth was a stranger, he somehow understood her, even if she told him the opposite quite clearly. Or because he didn’t want to get into trouble himself, after all, he snuck out of his room.  


“So, you said you need fuel…”, Jesse said, trying to break the silence. It worked. Elizabeth looked up again.  


“Yeah. Could you help me?”  


“I mean, I could try. But we would have to break into the garage.”  


Elizabeth was more than confused. “It ain’t breaking in if you live here.”  


“It is, because I don’t have the keys to the garage. Don’t ask, it’s a long story.”, to further emphasize his demand, he raised hand, just at the moment she opened her mouth, demanding an explanation. She doubted the day could get any worse and agreed to help him.  


Jesse started to describe his plan: “It’s actually not that deep, I sneak into the house, get the keys and open the garage from the inside to let you in. You just have to bring you’re bike and then we’ll suck off some gas. I’m pretty sure we’ll find everything we need for that in the garage. Got it?” It wasn’t ‘deep’ at all, but he still asked her like he was a teacher at her school and she… well she was just Elizabeth. The stupid student who didn’t understand a single thing.  


“Yeah, yeah. So, where’s the garage?”  


“Just follow me.”, he opened the door and, stepped outside and pulled his bandana, that he wore around his neck before, over his nose, as if it was a mask. It made her chuckle. As he vanished into the main house, now there wasn’t any light streaming out of the windows anymore, she quickly did what he demanded of her and waited outside of the garage.  


A couple of minutes later, the garage door opened and inside stood Jesse, a proud smile on his face, the bandana in its original place around his neck once again. “You don’t have to thank me.”, he said, as she entered, pushing her bike, “I already know I’m a sneaky bastard. Now onto step… wait I lost count.”  


It made her smile a bit, wondering if the boy was actively trying to cheer her up, or if it was just the way he is. Either way, she was grateful for it.  


“Did we even have steps?”, he broke her stream of thoughts.  


“I don’t think so. Does it matter?”  


“Not really, no. But if you would be so kind and help me find a plastic hose. We’re gonna need one.”  


They searched for a while, both paying attention to not make too much noise. The garage was full of stuff, but it seemed that everything had its place, either in a big rack, or in a thousand small drawers of a work bank. The lights flickered a couple of times, announced by the disruption of their quiet humming. In one corner, the wall fell victim to a child’s imagination, as it was filled with doodles of butterflies and crooked flowers. Another corner was dusty and filled with spiderwebs. Elizabeth didn’t like the thought of where the spiders were now. Most of the space was occupied by two cares, not new, sleek cars like Elizabeth was used to seeing at home, but she imagined that at least one of them did its job still alright, as the other one was decorated with dents, too many to count with just one single glance. They finally found not only one, but two hoses. Elizabeth didn’t ask him why they had such things, but the question still remained.  


He was just about to start sucking gasoline from one of the cars, the old-fashioned way, where you literally suck of gasoline by sucking on the hose, when she stopped him. “Dude, that’s like really dangerous what you’re doing there.”  


“Isn’t that how you’re supposed to do it?”  


“No. Just let me do it.”, she took both hoses and put the longer one in the gas tank, “But I need some kind of cloth…” She looked at Jesse, or to put it better, at his neck. He followed her glance.  


“No.”, he said firmly, “You can take everything from me, but not that.”  


Moments later, he reluctantly handed it to her, after she threatened to scream. “You must know, Jesse, I always get what I want.”, she said grinning.  


“No, you’re just a brat.”  


After putting the shorter hose in the gas tank too, blocking the entrance with Jesse’s bandana and taking the longer one’s end to the gas tank of her bike, she carefully started blowing in the shorter one. Judging by Jesse’s expression, he wasn’t enthusiastic about this method, mostly because of the loss of his bandana, which he was unsure if he could ever use again of if it was ruined forever by the gasoline. However, as he watched further on, he was surprised by how amazing it worked.  


Happy, that their plan worked without any problems, he asked: “And what are we gonna do now?”  


“We?”, she asked surprised. She didn’t think about spending more time that necessary with the boy, although he was nice company. “Well, I still need a place to stay for the night.” A not so subtle question if he would invite her inside, though he seemed to miss the point.  


“You can sleep in the barn. I’ll join you, if you want.”  


Not expecting a better option, she excepted and they both returned to the barn, Jesse going inside the house again, to put the key back, leaving no trace to their ‘break-in’.  
They got as comfortable as it got in the hay, and stayed silent for a long minute, before Elizabeth broke the silence: “Aren’t your parents worried, if you sleep in the barn?”  


He hesitated. “Worried isn’t the right word. Mad, if anything. What about yours? I mean, do they allow you to just drive around in the middle of nowhere with your bike?”  


She hesitated too. “I don’t think they’re mad. I don’t think they’re anything, to be honest. Can we… not talk about them?”  


“Ditto.” A wave of relief washed over both of them and through the silence that followed, they felt more connected to a person than ever before. Many teachers have tried to make Elizabeth talk about her feelings and her relationship with her family (as it was no secret that she spent much time alone in her childhood, half forgotten by her own parents), linking it to her temper and behaviour at school. However, the only thing it did, was making Elizabeth hate those teachers even more and skipping their class regularly so that they only thought of her as a rich brat.  
Too lost in her own thoughts, she didn’t recognize how uncomfortable the silence made Jesse feel and as a result, was startled when he tried to break it. “So, how old are you?”  


Not knowing where the question would lead, she simply answered. “16, and you?”  


“14.” Another moment of silence followed. “What’s your favourite colour?”  


“Seriously? Is that the only question you can think of?”  


“Man, I don’t know. You certainly don’t do anything.”  


She rolled her eyes. “Jesse, are you sure you’re 14? Cause it sure as hell doesn’t seem like it.”  


“I am! I’m just shit at small talk.”, he admitted.  


“No shit sherlock.”, she sighed, “Why don’t you tell me about why you don’t have the garage keys? We should have enough time for it now.”  


Luckily, what the boy lacked in small talk-skills, he could make up with storytelling, as he went on a thorough explanation how exactly things went about, once he arrived here, at his new foster family. This wasn’t his first and, as he put it, not his last either, as it never seemed to take too long until people are fed up with him. Surprisingly, he lasted here for little over half a year (though according to his theory it’s only because they need help on the farm, nevertheless he didn’t mind it. He liked the animals). “The first couple of weeks are always the worst.”, he explained, “The people here are nice, mostly. But the thing is that always having to restart everything ain’t exactly funny. Always having to move and stuff, kind of makes you frustrated. So, being the idiot that I am, I decided it would be a good idea to try and run away. Not by foot or bus or something like that, no. By stealing the car.”  


“Do you even know how to drive?”  


“Ehh…”, Jesse scratched his neck, a nervous habit of his, as she saw him do it a couple times before as well, “good enough, but not good enough to even leave the property. I got in some trouble afterwards, as you may assume. But my foster mother took pity in me, and stopped before it got too hard, saying that taking away the keys was enough for now.”  


Elizabeth didn’t ask what enough was, afraid of knowing and hoping not to ruin the mood, which lifted up since Jesse began with his story. Instead she continued with a story of hers, and how she hot wired the car of her parents once. Or twice. She stopped when they bought a car for her, which wasn’t what she was trying to achieve, but talking to her parents was something she nowadays avoided to do. Before Jesse could ask why, she moved on with her next story, how she won her first race with her bike and won a pack of cigarettes, that she still to this day carried around everywhere she went, even though she hated the aftertaste of smoke they leave in her mouth. It’s a lucky charm.  


“I’ve never smoked.”, Jesse murmured, not even facing her as he did.  


“Really? Most of my friends do. Do you wanna try?”  


“Not now, and not here. I’m stupid but not that stupid. My foster father already went crazy because I let off some firecrackers nearby the barn.”  


Through the rest of the nights they shared stories and thoughts, nothing too personal, both respecting each other and knowing to never ask why, how it led to the events or what happened afterwards. And if a “And then?” slipped out, they both just acted like they didn’t hear it. Although, in Elizabeth’s case, the answer would always be nothing, she feared what Jesse would say.  


Not remembering when they fell asleep, they woke up in the morning. Their bodies stiff and their hair messy, they slowly started to move. “How late is it?”, Jesse said in between yawns.  


Elizabeth glanced at her watch. “About… 6:38. Why?”  


“Shit!”, Jesse yelled, “I should’ve been up like, half an hour ago. You have to go away, now!”  


“Okay, chill.”, still feeling tired, she put on her helmet as Jesse opened the door and peeked to the main house, when he saw a figure approaching.  


“Jesse! What are you doing there?”, the figure yelled.  


Jesse’s eyes grew gigantic as he yelled to Elizabeth: “You have to go! Now!”  


Suddenly, feeling just as stressed as Jesse, she started the motor and sent a prayer to whoever watched over her at the moment, when it didn’t start the first time.  


“Jesse!”, the yell was closer than before and Jesse yelled something again, this time not directed to Elizabeth. “I can explain!”  


The man responded, however Elizabeth couldn’t hear exactly what, as finally the motor started, and she began to drive out of the barn and back to the road. The man looked dumbfounded as she drove past her, before his attention went to Jesse.  
“Who the fuck is that?”  


Elizabeth looked back, terrified of what would happen to her new acquaintance, who was so nice and not only helped her but also kept her company in an eventful night. The man was standing right before Jesse now, his hand raised dangerously high, shouting down at him.  
“Jesse!”, she screamed, hoping he was able to hear her over the roaring motor, “Come here!”  


Jesse ran off, the man followed him after his initial confusion about where the boy was going had lifted. He grasped after Jesse, but only caught air. Even though it only lasted seconds, for Elizabeth if felt like everything slowed down, until Jesse finally sat behind her on the bike and she drove off into a random direction. She only had two options anyway, left or right.  


While their adrenalin filled bodies calmed down, Elizabeth continued driving, not saying a word. She felt Jesse’s hand around her waist, shacking at the beginning, until he got used to the speed and the feeling of sitting on a motorbike. He said something she didn’t understand, and he repeated it a couple of times, each time louder, before she finally understood him. “Where are we going?”  


Yeah, where exactly? She hadn’t even thought of that. “I dunno.” They couldn’t keep driving. It was stupid from the beginning on, to drive somewhere without a plan. Where could they go? In the end, the only option was to turn around, but she was too proud to do that. They stayed silent, until Elizabeth saw blinking blue and red lights behind them.  
Damnit. She stopped.  


To her surprise, Jesse also knew the police officer who stepped out of the car, if the sigh and shameful gaze to the ground of the officer was anything to go by.  


“Jesse McCree, there you are.”, he said, before turning to Elizabeth, “Could you remove your helmet please, miss?”  


She did as she was told. Of course, it was Officer Hughes, it somehow always was. “I shouldn’t be surprised.”, he muttered, once he recognized her. Officer Hughes was probably a nice guy, he looked like the neighbour that would invite you over to BBQ Parties, with a slight stubble and tired brown eyes with big bags under them. Over the last couple of years wrinkles made his face their territory, two deep lines formed a path from his nose to the corners of his mouth. But he was definitely also the neighbour who would call the cops because of noise complaint, if you even did as much as sneeze too loud after 10 pm.  


“Jesse, you have to come with me. Your parents are searching for you.”, he waited, until Jesse got off the hoverbike before he continued, “They called because you ran away with someone.”  


“Do I have to go too?”, Elizabeth asked. More because she wanted to stay with Jesse, especially now, when he looked sadder than ever before, than because she was worried of the consequences.  


“No, but you should go home.”  


“Have my parents called?”, for Jesse, her question sounded hopeful, but she would deny that, if ever asked. The Officer only shook his head.  


She put on her helmet and called to Jesse, before the Officer shut the door: “We’ll meet again Jesse. I’m sure of that.” She drove off, in the direction she came from, taking the advice of the Officer by heart and returning home. She couldn’t drive around forever anyway.


End file.
